Investing in the Future 🦄💰

In this episode, Mattimore and Justin interview Semil Shah on the future of venture capital, entrepreneurship, and tech companies 🚀

Semil is a Silicon Valley based investor at Haystack Fund. He’s also a Venture Partner at Lightspeed Ventures, and a thought leader who’s made meaningful contributions to TechCrunch, Quora, Harvard Business Review, and Twitter (@semil) 🎙

Key Questions:

How has the VC investing landscape changed from the time you first got involved up to now?

Thoughts on “World After Capital” - The notion that we are no longer constrained by capital, but are in fact only constrained by attention?

How will the attention economy and automation impact the future of jobs and income... 3 Visions of the future US economy: 1. Majority “useless class.” 2. People will find new jobs, not a big deal. 3. Most jobs will be people entertaining + caring for other people.

What do you make of the statistic that most American and British kids want to be an influencer/vlogger when they grow up, compared to Chinese kids who want to be an astronaut when they grow up?

How do you view the tech race between the US and China? Which would you put your money on to be the dominant technology player in the next 50 years?

How concerned are you about “runaway AI,” or, as Nick Bostrom has put it, “pulling out a black ball from the urn of invention?” Do you think people like Nick Bostrom and Elon Musk are right to be concerned about runaway AI? Or do you think their level of concern is overblown?

Most people talk about the rapid pace of advancement in technology. However, some contrarians like Peter Thiel and Eric Weinstein have talked about how science and technology is actually stagnating and has been for some time. Most of our recent progress has been in the world of bits, but even in that space it seems like the newest iPhones are getting less and less exciting each year. What do you make of this stagnation argument? Is there any merit to it?

How might the US solve the student debt crisis, and how might we better educate the next generation? (College Equivalency Degree, new models like Lambda school, free community college?)

How healthy is the US government, in your mind? What can be done to improve the efficiency and efficacy of our government?

How do you see the role of a VC in terms of enabling a better future? What is your way of balancing or prioritizing investments in terms of both their likelihood of financial yield / economic growth as well as their potential impact on society?

From your perspective, what sectors should we keep a close eye on in the next 10, 20, 50 years?

Future Scenarios:

Worst Case Scenario

Best Case Scenario

Most Likely Scenario

Thanks for tuning in! 🔭

Website: hencethefuture.com/

Instagram: instagram.com/hencethefuture/

Twitter: twitter.com/hencethefuture

YouTube: youtube.com/c/HenceTheFuturePodcast

#HTF #HenceTheFuture